The present invention relates to a network apparatus capable of accessing services provided from a linked network, such as the Internet.
Conventionally, an internet terminal linked to the Internet to access various kinds of services provided from a network has come into widespread use, and a great number of users use an electronic mail service (hereinafter, referred to simply as mail service) known as one of the services available through the Internet. In order to receive an incoming electronic mail in the mail service, the user has to input his password or the like as a specific code, and for this reason, a third party who does not know the password cannot receive the electronic mail without permission. This prevents an incoming electronic mail addressed to a particular user from being seen by the others.
However, the conventional internet terminal displays private information obtained from the network, such as the content of a received electronic mail, on a separate display device, such as a telereceiver. Therefore, when the user conducts a receiving manipulation and receives an electronic mail addressed to him, not only the user but also anyone around the display device can see the electronic mail. This poses a problem that private information is leaked to the others, and there has been an increasing need for improved security on the private information.
Recently, there has been proposed a technique to display the private information obtained from a network, such as the Internet, on a display unit provided on a communication device, such as a portable phone (the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. Hei7-193866, Hei 8-125724, etc.). With this type of communication device, if the user moves away from the people around so that they cannot see the display on the display unit when receiving the private information from the network, no one but the user alone can see the content displayed on the display unit. In contrast, because the conventional internet terminal is arranged to display information obtained from the network on a separate display device, such as the telereceiver, it cannot handle the information in the same manner as the above portable phone.